Publishing house of contemporary classical music

“Donemus is courageous and committed in the way it actively promotes new music…. While some other countries have equivalent organizations, I am not aware of any that is so proactive. Donemus sets a standard that others should follow.”
(Stephen Baggaley, Brisbane)

Highlighted Composer: Dmitri Kourliandski

Dmitri Kourliandski, who has recently signed a framework agreement with Donemus, will be well-represented in the music scene in the month of June. His ‘Octavia. Trepanation’ and ‘Maps of non-existent cities.bern’ will have their world premiere and his performance-installation, Commedia delle arti, will be at the prestigious Venice biennale in the Russian pavilion…

Dmitri Kourliandski, who has recently signed a framework agreement with Donemus, will be well-represented in the music scene in the month of June.

On June 15 and 16, Dmitri Kourliandski’s new opera, Octavia. Trepanation, will have its world premiere at the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ during the Holland Festival. The opera is a collaboration between the composer and director Boris Yukhananov, the artistic director of Moscow’s Stanislavsky Electrotheatre. The opera investigates the bloody mechanisms of the Russian revolution. They call it an “opera-operation.” On stage is a giant replica of Lenin’s head, whose skull is trepanned. Kourliandski’s music consists of socialist hymns stretched out in time, texts by the Marxist revolutionary Leon Trotsky and excerpts from Octavia, a play attributed to Seneca about the Roman emperor Nero. Is art capable of explaining tyranny?

The Italian magazine Classic Voice recently named Kourliandski among the top 100 leading composers of the century. This year, his performance-installation, Commedia delle arti, will be at the prestigious Venice Biennale in the Russian pavilion. At the entrance to the Pavilion, visitors can pick-up “score-instructions” that can be followed to create a dialogue between the artist, the visitor, and the outside world.

On July 1 and 2, the world premiere of maps of non-existent cities. bern by Ensemble Proton Bern under the direction of Matthias Kuhn will take place at the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern, Switzerland. The piece takes place within the exhibition “Die Revolution ist tot. Lang lebe die Revolution!”. The piece will be a key work within the program, and Dmitri Kourliandski will reflect upon the question, “is revolution still alive today?”